The Other Woman
by Laryna6
Summary: Vetinari, on Vimes, Carrot, the nature of belief, the perils of being believed in, the woman they all belong to & the women they cheat on their work with. Morporkia is a selfish mistress.


Disclaimer: I do not own Discworld: Terry Pratchett does. Send all money and prayers to the true creator, please.

I seem to have passed the one million word mark. Of course, that includes A/Ns, but doesn't include quite a few things, including a novel and a half of original work. Just the things archived on fanfiction dot net.

I would have written eleven original novels if I'd just done that instead, huh. This indeed isn't the best for one's career, but it's still good to have written so much. I like writing, and regardless of the quality (which varies highly, this includes early work and work done while sick), I'm more than a bit proud of myself for sticking with it. I always wanted to be a writer, and I am, regardless of whether or not I actually get published in anything but one of the Gathering of the Gargoyles convention anthologies. That reminds me, I think the one year period before posting that anywhere else has passed… I'll have to see if I can find it.

In any case, although I'm a long-time discworld fanatic I've never written anything for it. It's so impressive a work that I don't feel I have anything to contribute. Hence, my contribution is just musing on the greatness of it, really.

Enjoy. Or not.

-

Ever since he noticed this, and he has since it began (of course) he's monitored it carefully (as he does everything). He's well aware of the pitfalls of this (as of every other profession). The Patricianship by itself tends to megalomania. By this point, people believe that the Patrician will be insane. He was aware of that when he took the job. He was trained by the assassins, he knows that people will see what they expect to see until it is too late. He made very sure that his brand of insanity would not be one that led to raving. In a sense, it's a relief to have that which is kept ready beneath the calm surface known.

So the power of belief made him the cold rational type of insanity that reads sheet music. He finds himself needing less and less sleep, less and less food. Useful traits, except that all food now bores him in the same way song does. Yes, tasty, now what? Of what use is it to him? Others, yes. He set up a method by which he could eat everything safely but in the end he does mostly subsist on bread, other staples. He had once enjoyed rare shellfish. A quirk that was perceived as just a method of throwing others off-balance. He lost that while he was holding out against random executions.

Public perception is a poison. Luckily, he was taught well how to handle poisons. There are some that are sold on the streets and drive men mad that if taken carefully will make them healthier, stronger. Medicines.

He knows well that he must be careful with the dose.

He has a cult now, already. He found a way for them to be looked after (thank goodness they are still seen as only madmen).

Ankh-Morporkians have always believed in their city. Black-hearted, yes, corrupt, yes, decaying, yes, but a survivor. He can tell that Vimes believes in her, although he'd be insulted to be called a priest. Still, he is a servant of his goddess and a servant of her people. He is moved into the role although he does not understand why he bows to the will of her high priest.

The belief of the citizens, his belief in what John Keel showed him...

He's not a demi-god. Not like Carrot, who knows that he has to hide his awareness of his power because otherwise people will know that he can weild it and will try to get him to weild it for them, and it's hard to say no to those you love. He's not quite the same. He has power because he is it, at this point. They both, he and Vimes, intercede between Morporkia and her people. Protect her from them and them from what they have made of her.

He wanted to make this a city where something like the death of Cruces would not be utterly pointless. He knows that good and justice are nothing but rafts on the deep, but a raft is better than drowning. A raft can become a ship can become a trading empire. It is perhaps because he knows how fragile the peace he has created is that he values it, unlike Vimes who as long as he thinks that good is the norm is doomed to be disappointed by the true norm instead of pleased when it is overcome.

Vimes' power is not all that unlike Carrot's. Carrot woke him up: Vimes saved himself, and he knows that if he could do it then anyone can. He holds back the beast within with a power that can throw out primordial demons. Carrot tells them that they are people worth loving and they love him for it, they start to believe it of themselves and want to be worthy of his love. Carrot's power works because he is a True King, the father all the city's lost children want to show them the way. If he were a bad person he'd be killed: the power would do the opposite of protect him.

Carrot hasn't been the same since Uberwald. They talk, rarely. More now. Carrot was nearly powerless there, longing for home with every step away from it he took. If he were at home the wolf wouldn't have died. The wolf was the pack leader there, not him, and the leader of a small pack has no power next to the avatar of the hopes of millions. If he hadn't made Carrot his successor, if only for a moment... But now Angua wonders, and worries, and Carrot hates to fail them. Gavin made a noble choice, but that only makes it worse. That he lost someone like that, that Angua did.

And how can he tell her that by his nature as hard as he tries to love her as Carrot, as King his true love is and is only the city. Queens are there to bear the city's children.

Yet he left Morporkia behind for her.

Would she understand that the fact he is bound like that doesn't make their bond worth nothing, it only shows the odds he strives against, how much he values it, that it is constantly tested like that? How much he values her? She is the one he choose to love, and he fights to keep it. Angua doesn't understand that she's dating a single father, and that if he chose her over his child he wouldn't be the man she loves.

The throne is hollow. It's only a symbol. It's only an alter, and he is aware he is not the god. He has to be. It keeps him a reasonable type of insane. Or, really, outsane. He is cold and logical and has no heart to be hurt (nearly). They are old, he and Vimes.

Lipwig shows potential. It will take a showman to show them something he can bear to become. A stage magician instead of a spider. Someone who will always have another trick up his sleeve, who might seem close to loosing but that will only make it better when he saves the city yet again.

Just like Vimes will always, always get his man. The terrier will chase them though time itself, if necessary. Little Sam is also part of it now, his father the guardian of the city and of its future. The one who will always be there when needed. Carrot's guardian, or guard. The one who watches the watchman. Carrot won't become what Vimes fears, because he won't force his mentor to kill him. The fact that Vimes would is more of a relief than even Carrot understands. The one Vimes loves is Carrot, not the King he is in danger of becoming in reality as well as in truth.

The one Vimes believes in is Carrot, despite the fact he also knows about his kingship. Vimes believes in justice, and he believes in Carrot, and he believes in Vetinari. Vimes, who evicted an ancient demon.

He wonders when the gods are going to notice that humans are beginning to believe in themselves and their creations. Om has, for one.

He wonders what they'll do when they realize that the belief they need to live is being given to those that aren't even gods.

Leonard, for one, worships everything in sight and everything that isn't. A natural prophet.

The last time something like this happened Holy Wood happened.

No more of that, not in his city. He wouldn't allow something like that to happen to Morporkia.


End file.
